Car Shopping

The time has come for me to get a new car. I currently own a 97 Mazda Protege that has over 100k miles on it. I have been doing lots of research online and getting price quotes from local dealerships through email. Within the last 2 weeks I have test driven a 2008 Ford Focus, Nissan Versa, Mazda 3 and a 2009 Toyota Corolla. My favorite so far is the Mazda. Oddly enough it was the first car I drove. Controls for wipers, lights etc are in the same places as my car. It was very comfortable to drive, and a nice quiet ride. I did notice that it was easy to quickly be over the speed limit because it accelerates so smoothly I didn't hear the shift changes as much. Next I drove the Focus, which was running for a great price. This year Ford has added a lot of cool extra features to the Focus. If you get the SES it has the Microsoft Sync system, which is a hands-free voice recognition system. I have to say this is a really awesome idea, however it seemed a little over-the-top for a car like the Focus. More important features like comfortable seats, location of the shifter stick and emergency brake were lacking. Last night I drove the2009 Toyota Corolla which has been re-vamped this year. I really like the look of it on the outside, and it drove pretty smooth too. The seats weren't the most comfortable, and I don't think any of my tall friends would have enough head room. Toyota is a reliable company, and the Corolla gets great gas mileage which is a huge benefit of late. The Nissan Versa is a sporty little car. It was smooth to drive and had quite a bit of getup and go. When sitting in it, I felt I was higher than in any of the other cars. I not only liked the look of the hatchback, but I also felt I could see out the back better. Overall I liked it a lot, and I've had several people recommend this local dealership. The low price makes it very tempting even though I like the Mazda best.
I'm finding that this decision isn't as easy as I thought it could be. Thinking about all the different aspects of buying a new car has been somewhat stressful, and I can't wait for it to be over. However it is fun to drive all these different cars! :)

NW Flower & Garden Show update

hello everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that if you'd like to see more pics from the show you can look at my web album here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/leah.liebelt/2008NWFlowerGardenShow

NW Flower & Garden Show

This last weekend I went to the NW Flower & Garden Show at the convention center in Seattle. I went with a fellow garden-lover from church, Martha, and we had a wonderful time! She just recently moved to the area and had never been, so it was a new experience for her. This was my first year to actually spend a whole day at the show, and go to any seminars. I really enjoyed it even though I was exhausted by the end of it.

We began by viewing the Display Gardens. This is the most amazing part, because there are these gardens which make you feel like you are outdoors not in a big convention center. Martha and I decided that if we took our pictures just right, people wouldn't be able to tell we were inside at all. There were several I really liked, but my favorite was called "Weekend Adventures". It was a small camping/picnic scene in what looked like a native Northwest woodland setting. All the plants they used were natives or variations of natives to Western Washington. Another favorite was a fall harvest themed garden that incorporated a flower garden and a veggie garden together.

After we looked at all the Display Gardens, we walked through one of the three rooms of booths and then went to a couple seminars. The first seminar was "Part 1: Containers 101" and the second was "Part 2: Plant Palettes" both by Wendy Welch. Wendy Welch is a Container Designer who teaches classes at Swansons Nursery in Seattle, and at Edmonds Community College (where I went to school). I really enjoyed her seminars, she explained things in a very easy-to-understand way. In part two of the seminar, she showed several slides with ideas for plant combinations which I always find helpful.

We then ate lunch and continued our visit by looking at the container competition. Different designers and nurseries had each put together a grouping of containers with specific themes. One of my favorites was using succulents and bright colors. Another really neat one had a miniature theme. They made miniature garden scenes in their containers. Each was very creative. We finished off our time by walking through the remaining area of booths which included nursery booths with live plants for sale.

Overall I really enjoyed the show. The display gardens had some great ideas in them, and hearing Wendy talk about making containers made me want to get back into that.

Starting Fresh

Hello friends, family, and strangers,

Some of you may remember that I had a blog from a while ago called The Garden of Thought. If you do, then you also remember that I wasn't very good at keeping up with it. Eventually I lost my info for signing in etc and now I've decided to start fresh. I'm not completely the same person as I was before, and now that I've graduated college, I'm dealing with new issues, concerns, and excitements.
I hope that you help me in this new endeavor to share, by adding your 2 cents to my posts.